Maha Cyber unit gets Interpol's 'Crawler' software to track child porn

Photo for representational purpose

The state police's cyber-crime prevention department, Maharashtra Cyber, has become the country's first agency to obtain a state-of-the-art software to track suspects of child pornography and related offences. Called ‘Crawler', it was procured from the Interpol's south Asian wing and will be used in Operation Blackface, the state's call to action against child sexual abuse.

As per a report in Mumbai Mirror, confirming the development, Maharashtra Cyber's Special Inspector General of Police, Yashasvi Yadav, said, "To protect the innocence of children and crack down on perpetrators, we have provided the best training and tools to our TRACE team." The police's TRACE (Tactical Response against Cyber Child Exploitation) unit seeks to counter the rising number of cases of child pornography/abuse.

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Recently, the Maharashtra Cyber also conducted online training for over 270 police personnel on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, which was amended in March this year to include stringent punishment for those found distributing or possessing child pornographic content.

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The cyber police have registered 151 related cases as part of Operation Blackface this year and arrested 48 persons for offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act (ITA) and the POCSO. The operation was launched in January to crack down on offenders targeting children and women on social media. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has appointed a nodal officer in each state to track and curb child pornography.

In Maharashtra, the Inspector General of Police (Maharashtra Cyber) is the nodal officer. NGO gives home to woman whose husband was found dead on the tracks, will fund sons' education The cyber police have also trained the spotlight on online rackets that blackmail people with claims that they possess their surfing details, including visits to those sites depicting child pornography. Offenders intimidate victims via emails and text messages by trotting out sections of the ITA dealing with pornography. The racketeers threaten victims with dire consequences, including defaming them and passing on information to the police, to demand lakhs of rupees in bitcoins or via DarkNet channels. Cops say the blackmailers are employing high-tech systems to track the online footprint of porn addicts who use proxy servers or Virtual Private Network to circumvent government restrictions.

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